You never miss some things until they’re gone. It wasn’t until I sat down to finally pen this 2017 Surface Pen review that I realized how essential to my workflow Microsoft digital pen truly wasRead More

Microsoft has said that it’s getting its act together in PC gaming on no less than three separate occasions. The third time, no one believed them. Really, after the disaster that was Games for Windows Live, I’m not sure they believed it themselves. If Microsoft wanted to be taken seriously in console game it had to actually deliver on its promises to treat the PC like a first-class citizen in its ecosystem. It’s with that in mind that you can truly appreciate the small wonder that is the Xbox Wireless Adapter. I know, I never thought Microsoft would do the obvious and provide accessory support for gaming on Windows. Read More

Whoever said that Microsoft’s 343 Industries didn’t have anything to prove following the successful launch of Halo 4 was kidding themselves. Halo 4 didn’t bring Microsoft’s flagship gaming franchise to its knees with glitches and multiplayer failures. It wasn’t a highlight though. Today, three years after the game’s launch, I can say with some certainty that it was my least favorite game to date.Read More

Games that are toys. For years, adults have tried to convince adults younger than themselves that the games they play are immature, digital toys that they should’ve grown out of by the time they’re able to spend their own money on them. Despite the influence of my slightly rigid girlfriend, I’m happy to say that digital toys or not, I play more games now than I ever did as a kid. That same girlfriend watched as I played Disney Infinity 3.0 for Microsoft’s Xbox One console for the first time.Read More

It’s surprisingly hard for me to remember why I first fell in love with Rocksteady’s Batman series of games. I do remember that the first in the franchise, Batman: Arkham Asylum, came at a pivotal time for me gaming wise. I’d purchased an Xbox 360 purely to play Star Trek Legacy and the game was an epic joke. I downloaded the demo of Arkham Asylum and instantly knew I’d found “my” series; my game that I’d keep coming back to over and over. I approached the release of Batman: Arkham Knight not unlike everyone else. Ridiculously excited and a tad bit nervous. Read More

Microsoft’s Xbox One began life as an entertainment console. The company’s initial marketing tools pointing to the console being the best place for all kinds of entertainment, the one place that the entire family could turn to for the latest video games, music and live television. Today, the Xbox One is still great for all of those things, but Microsoft has chosen not to place a special emphasis on that. The Hauppauge Digital TV Tuner for Xbox One’s release is made more interesting by Microsoft’s complete silence in the entertainment front. Read More

I’m inclined to believe that the only thing more daunting than finishing a massive role-playing game like Dragon Age: Inquisition is creating one. I’m not a video game developer per se, but what understanding I have of the process forces me to conclude that any role-playing game involves balancing competing priorities.Read More

There ought to be a place where recovering addicts who’ve abused the Xbox One’s media integration could go and talk about their problems. In theory, people in attendance would sit with their legs folded in a circle and discuss a time in which they actually did know individual channel numbers and didn’t spend time fondling a bulky controller or yelling, “Xbox, OneGuide.”Read More

We all get wrapped up in the hype surrounding advancements in entertainment and technology. Most of us just know that purchasing this one new thing, this new idea that’s never been done right will change our lives. A lot of time that’s not what happens. We buy these things and we forget the most important parts of the equation. For smartphones, it’s all about that applications you can load onto it. For Microsoft’s Xbox One, I’d argue it’s all about the software features and the Kinect for Xbox One sensor.Read More

I can’t remember the first time I heard a media critic or television personality talk about television lovers cutting the cord. I can remember planning to move to my first apartment and deciding I wouldn’t get cable. To be clear, this wasn’t some self-righteous decision to be different or lead the charge in some direction. I couldn’t afford the extra expense. Now I sit here, able to stream live television across the internet directly to my television using Sling TV on Xbox One. Read More

There are some game developers who pray that their games are controversial. There’s a certain kind of gravitas that comes along with being the title everyone is talking about and falling over each other to cover. With as much as it costs to produce a game these days, you don’t want to be on the front page of websites and news magazines; you need to be on the front page of websites and news magazines. That is, unless you’re getting the type of press Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Unity is.Read More

The history of Microsoft’s efforts in actual hardware reads like a rags to riches story. Obviously, what happened with the Zune portable media players represents the rags. Zunes were amazing, but in some ways they completely missed the mark. Certainly, they arrived way too late. The Surface Pro 3 is full of promise, arrived early enough in the 2-in-1 craze to be viable and is considered in some circles to be one of the best Windows machines on the market. If you believe Microsoft’s television ads, there is the MacBook Air and the Surface Pro 3. Nothing else.Read More

Way back when Microsoft’s music platform still sported orange and magenta as accent colors instead of green and Xbox Music was still Zune; users had a choice to make. Back then, before Spotify, before the iPod Touch and the Samsung Galaxy S4, there was Zune Music Pass. With it users could download an unlimited amount of songs, listen to them even when they didn’t have an internet connection and share them with their friends through Zune Social. Zune is gone and it’s never coming back, but in its place we have Xbox Music apps and smartphones than run them like the Galaxy S4.Read More

Microsoft’s Xbox Music Service on the Galaxy S5 & More

Game delays happen. They always have and they always will. Those of us who closely follow the industry know that this is never going to change. When it happened to Watch Dogs for the Xbox One and Xbox 360 gamers who were looking forward to snatching up the game for the holiday season were livid.Read More